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Principal  Works  of 

George  Meredith 


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AT    LOS  ANGELES 


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be  Principal  Works  of  . 
George  Iflereditb  .  .  . 
J\  Brief  Bibliography  . 
By  Ulm.  Dallam  Jfrmes 


I 


A 


A  72, 


This  list  was  compiled  in  connection  with  a  study  of  Mr. 
Meredith's  novels  made  for  a  public  lecture  at  the  University 
of  California.  It  was  published  in  the  Monthly  Bulletin  of 
the  Oakland  Free  Library  with  the  hope  that  it  might  increase 
in  some  degree — however  slight — the  reading  of  the  works  of 

v  oie  who  is  tardily  becoming  recognized  as  the  foremost  living 
English  novelist.  With  the  same  hope  it  is  now  reprinted  for 
presentation   to   friends.     As   a   bibliography   it   is   professedly 

0  incomplete,  "but  it  can  innocently  instruct  those  who  are  more 
ignorant  than  itself." 

Those  wishing  to  consult   a  fuller  bibliography  will  find 
c 
a      one  by  Mr.  John  Lane  appended  to  Mr.  Le  Gallienne's  George 

c      Meredith,  Some  Characteristics. 

oc 

Messrs.    Roberts    Brothers,    of   Boston,    are   the   authorized 

publishers  in   this  country  of   most   of  Mr.  Meredith's  novels 

and  poems. 

W.  D.  A. 


262693 


1828.    Born  in  Hampshire,  Feb.  12TH. 

1851  [^t.  23].    Poems. 

This,  we  understand,  is  his  first  appearance  in  print  ;  if  it  be  so, 
there  is  very  high  promise  in  the  unambitious  little  volume  which  he 
has  sent  forth  as  his  first-fruits.  It  is  something,  to  have  written 
already  some  of  the  most  delicious  little  love-poems  which  we  have 
seen  born  in  England  in  the  last  few  years,  reminding  us  by  their 
richness  and  quaintness  of  tone  of  Herrick;  yet  with  a  depth  of  thought 
and  feeling  which  Herrick  never  reached.  Health  and  sweetness  are 
two  qualities  which  run  all  through  these  poems. 

— Fraser's  Mag.,  Dec,  1851  (44:629). 

1856  [28].    The    Shaving  of  Shagpat.     An    Arabian 

Entertainment. 

A   delightful    volume    of    well-sustained   Oriental  extravagance. 
—[George  Eliot,]  Westm.  Rev.,  Oct.,  1857.  (N.S.  12:597). 

In  a  measure  an  imitation  of  the  Arabian  Nights,  half  burlesque 
and  half  serious  ;  with  a  moral  concerning  illusions  in  life  and  gov- 
ernment, tucked  away  in  the  end   of  the  story. 

— G.  P.  Lathrop,  Ail.  Mo.,  Feb.,  1888(61:179). 

There  is  surely  no  modern  book  so  unsullied  as  this  by  the  modern 
spirit,  none  in  which  the  desire  to  teach  a  lesson,  to  refer  knowingly 
to  the  topics  of  the  day,  or  worst  of  all,  to  be  incontinently  funny,  in- 
terferes less  with  the  tender  magic  of  Oriental  fancy,  or  with  the  child- 
like, earnest  faith  in  what  is  utterly  outside  the  limits  of  experience. 

—Edmund  Gosse,  Gossip  in  a  Library,  328. 

1857  [29J.     Farina:   A  Legend  of  Cologne. 

Unworthy    of   notice. — G.  P.  Lathrop,  All.  Mo.,  Feb.,  1888  (61:179). 

Making  every  allowance  for  comedy  or  caricature,  the  jnediseval 
life  is  marvellously  vivid.  .  .  Extravagant  as  the  story  is,  and  as 
it  is  meant  to  be,  it  is  nevertheless  a  spirited  and  natural  piece  of 
writing.  —Ed.  Rev.,  Jan.,  1895  (181:38). 

As  a  whole,  we  think  "Farina"  lacks  completeness,  and  the  ghostlj' 
element  is  not  well  worked  in.  .  .  Nor  can  we  admire  many  passages, 
in  which  the  Author  has  sacrificed  euphony,  and  almost  sense,  to 
novelty  and  force  of  expression.  With  these  blemishes,  "Farina"  is 
both  an  original  and  an  entertaining  book,  and  will  be  read  with 
pleasure  by  all  who  prefer  a  lively,  spirited  story  to  those  dull  analyses 
of  dull  experiences  in  which  the  present  school  of  fiction  abounds. 
— [George  Eliot,]  Westm.  Rev.,  Oct.,  1857  (N.  S.  12:599). 


1859  [31]-     The  Ordeal  of  Richard  Feverel.     A  His- 
,     tory  of  Father  and  Son. 

The  greatest  novel  of  this  generation. 

—J.  M.  Barrie,  Conl.  Rev.,  Oct.,  1888  (54:577). 

The  book  is  very  clever,  with  a  fresh,  vigorous  vitality  in  the  style; 
but  it  is  not  true  to  real  life  or  human  nature;  only  true  to  an  abstract 
and  entirely  arbitrary  idea.  —Athenoeum,  July  9,  1859,  4^- 

Charged  to  the  brim  with  earnestness,  wit,  strength  of  conception. 
...  It  seems  to  me  that  the  heart  which  is  not  touched,  and  the 
eyes  that  do  not  become  moist,  in  the  reading  of  the  last  portions  of 
Richard  Feverel  must  be  indurated  with  a  glaze  of  indifference 
which  is  not  to  be  envied.— G.  P.  Lathrop,  All.  Mo.,  Feb.,  18S8  (61:180). 

If  The  Egoist  is  .  .  .  the  book  which  of  all  Mr.  Meredith's 
books  commands  wonder,  Richard  Feverel  is  that  which  wins  our 
love.  .  .  .  It  is  no  injustice  to  his  other  books  to  say  that  Richard 
Feverel  is  fuller  of  fine  tnings  than  any  one  of  them,  brilliant  as  each 
is.  And,  of  course,  the  greatest  thing  in  it  is  the  matchless  lyric  of  the 
early  love  of  Richard  and  Lucy. 
— Richard LeGallienne, George  Meredith,  Some  Characteristics,  34- 

That  famous  scene  where  Richard  Feverel  and  Lucy  Desborough 
meet  to  fall  in  love  .  .one  might  feel  disposed  to  designate  the  most 
exqui  ite  in  English  fiction,  but  for  that  other,  no  less  famous  and  no 
less  exquisite  .  .  .  where  the  two  sit  by  the  border  of  the  lake  and 
listen  to  love's  piping  and  the  cry  of  the  night-jar. 

—  Temple  Bar,  Apr.,  1893  (7:597)- 

The  story,  with  all  its  beauty,  tenderness,  and  boldness,  leaves  a 
melancholy,  and  what  is  perhaps  worse,  an  unsatisfactory  impression 
behind  it.  ...  A  novelist  is  free  to  write  a  book  with  a  purpose  if  he 
likes,  but  having  done  so,  he  must  submit  to  be  judged  according  to 
the  nature  of  his  purpose  and  the  clearness  with  which  he  has  devel- 
oped it.  In  this  respect  we  read"Richard  Feverel"  fascinated,  we  lay 
it  down  dissatisfied.  .  .  .  But  as  a  mere  novel  of  character,  it  would 
not  be  easy  to  speak  too  highly  of  the  talents   which   it   indicates. 

—[Justin  McCarthy,]  VVestm.  Rev.,  July,  1864  (26:31). 

t86i  [33].     Evan  Harrington. 

A  spirited  novel,  illustrative  of  the  distinctions  of  rank  in  English 
society,  and  remarkable  for  the  vivacity  of  its  narrative  and  the  dra- 
matic raciness  of  its  dialogue.  — Harper's  Ma%.,  Jan.,  1861  (22:260). 

A  surprisingly  good  novel.  .  .  .  Has  the  great  merit  of  increas- 
ing as  it  goes  on  in  interest.    .    .    .      Mr.  Meredith  has  got  a  new  plot, 


[Evan  Harrington.] 

and  a  good  hero  and  heroine,  who  are,  as  it  were,  part  of  the  plot.  .  .  . 
And  he  has  also  got  a  prominent  character  to  help  the  plot  on,  and  to 
put  the  hero  and  heroine  in  and  out  of  their  troubles;  and  this  promi- 
nent character  is  so  well  drawn  as  to  raise  Mr.  Meredith  to  a  very  con- 
siderable height  in  the  list  of  novel  writers. 

—Sat.  Rev.,  Jan.  19,  1861  (11:77). 

1862  [34].    Modern  Love  and   Poems  of  the  English 
Roadside,  with  Poems  and  Ballads. 

The  Poems  of  the  English  Roadside  seem  to  me  his  most  original 
work, .and  of  them  "Juggling  Jerry"  is  the  best. 

— E.  C.  Stedman,  Victorian  Poets,  271. 

In  Mr.  George  Meredith's  poems  there  is  a  freshness  and  vigour 
not  often  met  with  at  the  present  day.  Moreover  there  is  no  trace  in 
them  of  imitation  of  any  ot  our  popular  poets.  Their  faults  are  fre- 
quent roughness  and  occasional  obscurity.  .  .  .  The  manner  in 
which  Mr.  Meredith  treats  his  subjects  convinces  us  that  he  has  real 
poetical  talents.  —Westm.  Rev.,  July,  1862  (22:284). 

A  work  of  such  subtle  strength,  such  depth  of  delicate  power,  such 
passionate  and  various  beauty,  as  the  leading  poem  of  Mr.  Meredith's 
volume:  in  some  points,  as  it  seems  to  me  (and  in  this  opinion  I  know 
that  I  have  weightier  judgments  than  my  own  to  back  me)  a  poem 
above  the  aim  and  beyond  the  reach  of  any  but  its  author.  ...  A 
more  perfect  piece  of  writing  [than  the  forty-seventh  section]  no  man 
alive  has  ever  turned  out.— A.C.  Swinburne,  The  Spectator,  June  7,  1862. 

Modern  Love  .  .  .  stands  alone,  not  merely  in  Mr.  Meredith's 
work,  but  in  all  antecedent  literature.  It  is  altogether  a  new  thing; 
we  venture  to  call  it  the  most  "modern''  poem  we  have. 

—  [Arthur  Symons,]  Westm.  Rev.,  Sept.,  1S87.  (128:696). 

Modern  Love  is  Mr.  Meredith's  one  great  poem  of  tragic  life. 
It  is,  moreover,  Mr.  Meredith's  one  great  achievement  in  poetic  art. 
.  .  .  It  is  not  impossible  that  after  all  this  wrangling  about  Mr.  Mere- 
dith's novels,  posterity,  in  its  quiet  way,  will  go  up  to  the  shelf  and 
lay  its  hand  on  "Modern  Love." 

—  Richard  Le  Gallienne,  George  Meredith,  Some  Characteristics, 
109,  152. 

Mr.  Le  Gallienne  seems  inclined  to  place  the  title-poem  at  the  very 
head  of  Mr.  Meredith's  work,  above  even  the  novels.  He  is  in  good 
company , for  that,  too,  was  Mr.  Browning's  opinion. 

—Arthur  Symons,  Acad.,  Jan.  24,  1891  (38:81). 

Truly  a  great  poem.  It  is  a  leaf  torn  out  of  the  book  of  life,  and 
dripping  with  life's  red  reality.  .  .  .  Those  who  look  upon  verse  as 
an  elegant  recreation  maybe   warned  off  at  once.     To  read   Modern 


T  I 


[Mobern  Love.] 

Love  is  not  exactly  to  ''follow  the  delightful  Muse;"  the  theme  is 
painful,  not  delightful  at  all;  but  it  is  the  mysterious  province  of  tragic 
art  to  distil  from  moral  pain  {esthetic  pleasure;  and  Mr.  Meredith's 
art,  as  a  poet,  is  above   all   else  tragic. 

— Wm.  Watson,  Excursions  in  Criticism,  138. 
The  subject  of  this  tragedy  in  fifty  brief  scenes  [Modern  Love], 
largely  imagined  and  forcibly  compressed,  is  the  story  of  the  wedded 
misery  of  two  persons,  whose  natures  were  finely-strung  instruments 
for  fate  to  play  upon.  The  sentimentality  of  the  feminine  mind,  that 
feeds  on  illusions  and  fears  development  as  it  fears  death;  the  man's 
intellect  that  cannot  trust  nature,  but  will  question  and  analyze:  both 
of  them  recalcitrant  against  change,  are  the  motives  of  this  sub- 
dramatic  study.  The  sonnets  are  so  subtle  and  charged  with  sec- 
ondary and  often  vague  meanings,  which  are  rather  the  stimulus  to 
thought  than  its  articulate  expression,  that  a  precise  interpretation  is 
hardly  to  be  attempted. 

— E.  Cavazza,  Foreword  to  Mosher's  reprint  of  Modern  Love,  V. 

1864  [36].     Emilia  in  England.     (Sandra  Belloni.) 

Though  full  of  interest  as  a  story,  "Emilia  in  England"  is  essen- 
tially analytic  in  its  treatment,  and  will  be  adequately  relished  only 
by  those  to  whose  capacity  of  thought  it  so  strongly  appeals. 

—  Westm.  Rev.,  July,  1864  (26:254). 

The  character  of  Emilia  herself  is  a  fine  study  of  the  nature  and 
development  of  the  true  artist.  .  .  We  have  seldom  met  in  fiction 
with  a  character  which  we  have  felt  to  be  so  fascinating. 

— Athenceum ,  Apr.  30,  1864,  609. 

It  is  not  an  amusing,  we  can  hardly  even  call  it  an  agreeable 
story.  There  is  something  melancholy  and  occasionally  harsh  about 
its  prevailing  tone.  Though  it  closes  hopefully,  its  general  effect  is 
rather  disheartening.  .  .  Its  supreme  merit  consists  in  the  fact  that 
it  has  added  to  fiction  one  thoroughly  original  and  perfectly  natural 
human  character.  .  .  We  remember  no  character  in  modern  liter- 
ature that  so  faithfully  pictures  the  nature  which  is  filled  with  a  genius 
for  music.  .  .  The  character  of  Emilia  is  to  us  the  first  completely 
satisfactory  evidence  that  Mr.  Meredith  really  has  in  him  the  essential 
qualities  of  a  great  novelist. 

—[Justin   McCarthy,]  Westm.  Rev  ,  July,  1864  (26:34). 

1865  [37]-     Rhoda  Fleming.     A  Story. 

A  novel  that  must  always  hold  a  foremost  place  with  the  lovers  of 
Mr.  Meredith's  works.  -  Temple  Bar,  April,  1893  (97:594). 

Mr.  Stevenson,  with  the  audacity  of  a  generous  spirit  chafing  at 
the  comparative  neglect  which  has  been  the  lot  of  his  master,  calls 


13 

[Rhoda  Fleming.] 

"Rhoda   Fleming,"  "the    strongest  thing    in    English    letters    since 

Shakspeare  died."  —J.  M.  Barrie,  Cont.  Rev.,  Oct.,  1888  (54:586). 

For  those  whose  care  is  for  real  literature,  and  such  literary  essen- 
tials as  character  largely  seen  and  largely  presented,  and  as  passion 
deeply  felt  and  poignantly  expressed,  there  is— if  any  there  be  to 
whom  "Rhoda  Fleming"  is  unknown— such  a  feast  in  "Rhoda  Flem- 
ing" as  no  other  novelist  of  the  day  has  spread.  The  book,  it  is  true, 
is  full  of  failures.  .  .  But  when  all  these  are  removed  .  .  a  treasure 
of  reality  remains.  — [W.  E.  Henley],  Athenceum,  July  31,  1886,  137. 

1866  [38].     Vittoria  (A  sequel  to  Sandra  Belloni). 

Vittoria  is  doubtless   his  one  great  achievement   in  the  objective 
dramatic.     What  professed  historian  could  have   given  us  such  a  pic- 
ture of  that  great  Austro-Italian  struggle? 
— Richard  Le  Gallienne,  George  Meredith, Some  Characteristics,  43. 

He  has  shown  as  much  power  of  thought  and  style  as  would  fit  out 
a  dozen  writers  of  sensation  novels.  There  is  scarcely  a  page  in  which 
there  is  not  evidence  of  originality,  and,  what  is  much  rarer,  of  con- 
scientious labour,  often  skilfully  applied.  .  .  Yet,  with  all  these  merits, 
.  .  .  Mr.  Meredith's  novel  has  the  unmistakable  fault  of  being  hard 
to  read.  —  Sat.  Rev.,  Feb.  2,  1867  (23:149). 

The  whole  drama  of  the  Italian  rising  in  1848.  .  ,  The  seething 
and  surging  of  the  revolutionary  movement  are  well  caught;  but  the 
reader  is  lost  in  the  maze  of  events,  and  confused  by  the  movements 
hither  and  thither  of  the  excited  actors.  .  .  But  then,  by  way  of  com- 
pensation, each  episode  has  its  own  interest,  and  the  most  insignificant 
personage  has  the  stamp  of  being  a  genuine  human  being,  and  not  a 
lay  figure.  —Athenamm,  Feb.  23,  1867,  248. 

l87i  [43]-    ThE  Adventures  of  Harry  Richmond. 

One  of  the  most  charming  of  Mr.  Meredith's  novels,  the  one  writ- 
ten apparently  with  the  greatest  ease  and  directness,  .  .  a  story  of 
adventure  pure  and  simple,  no  less  than  of  character 

—  Temple  Bar,  April,  1893  (97:592). 

All  the  earlier  part  of  the  book  .  .  is  fascinating  beyond  des- 
cription. .  .  The  story  breaks  down  utterly  in  the  middle.  Contin- 
ual hammering  on  one  Hue  of  effect  dulls  the  edge.  The  length  of  the 
narrative,  too,  the  multitude  of  persons  introduced,  and  their  all  but 
endless  involvements  tax   the    attention    beyond    endurance. 

— G.  P.  IvATHROP,  Ail.  Mo.,  Feb.,  1888  (61:187). 

To  me  Harry  Richmond's  father  is  Mr.  Meredith's  most  brilliant 
creation.     .    .     The  most  tenderly  pathetic  scene  in  fiction  is  probably 


15 

[Harry  Richmond.] 

Colonel  Newcome's  death,  but  the  most  impressive  is  the  death  of  Roy 
Richmond.  Tragedy  rings  down  the  curtain.  .  .  We  are  as  far  as 
ever  from  a  definition  of  genius,  a  word  not  to  be  lightly  used,  but 
there  are  unmistakable  instances  of  it,  and  I  cannot  think  that  Roy 
Richmond  is  not  one   of  them. 

-J.  M.  Barrie,  Cont.  Rev.,  Oct.,  1888  (54:583). 

1876  [48].    Beauchamp's  Career. 

One  of  Meredith's  best  productions;  and  the  central  personage  is 
one  of  the  inconsequent,  erratic  kind,  although  he  believes  that  he 
has  a  fixed  purpose,  and  tries  to  serve  it.  .  .  Anything  more  engag- 
ing than  the  impetuous  generosity  and  bravery  of  Beauchamp  it  would 
be  hard  to  imagine.  — G.  P.  Lathrop,  Ail.  Mo,,  Feb.,  1888  (61:189) 

"Beauchamp's  Career"  in  some  respects  we  should  feel  disposed  to 
rank  even  higher  than  ''Richard  Feverel."  It  contains,  indeed,  no 
single  passages  of  such  consummate  beauty,  no  such  sweep  of  passion 
and  pathos  as  we  find  in  the  incomparable  scenes  that  close  the  earlier 
romance;  but  there  is  on  the  whole  less  of  that  fantastic  nomenclature, 
that  touch  of  caricature  that  seem  to  us  to  mar  some  of  Mr.  Meredith's 
finest  work;  the  range  of  life  and  scene  is  wider;  we  feel  more  distant 
horizons  and  larger  issues.  —Temple  Bar,  April,  1893  (97:602)- 

1877  [49].     The    House   on    The    Beach.     (Published  in 

The  New  Quarterly  Magazine  for  January;  reprinted 
in  The  Tale  of  Chloe,  and  Other  Stories,  1895.) 

A  caprice  of  feminine  emotion  more  incredible  than  is  to  be  found 
in  any  other  of  his  books.  — G.  S.  Street,  The  Yellow  Book,  5:176. 

1877  [49].  On  the  Idea  of  Comedy,  and  of  the  Uses 
of  the  Comic  Spirit.  (Published  in  The  New 
Quarterly  Magazine  for  April  ;  reprinted  in  book 
form  in  1897.) 

As  we  understand  Mr.  Meredith,  he  intended  to  insist  that  the  ca 
pacity  for  "thoughtful  laughter"  as  distinguished  from  broad  laughter, 
and  still  more  from  vacuous  laughter,  is  one  of  the  most  unerring  as 
well  as  subtle  tests  of  civilization;  and  if  our  reading  is  true,  we  can 
most  cordially  agree  with  him.        — The  Spectator,  Feb.  10,  1877  (5V179). 

(See  also  under  1897.) 


17 

1877  [49]-  The  Case  of  General  Ople  and  I,ady 
Camper.  (Published  in  The  New  Quarterly  Maga- 
zine for  July  ;  reprinted  in  The  Tale  of  Chloe,  and 
Other  Stories,  1895.) 

As  artistic  and  as  abundantly  laughable  farce  as  was  ever  made, 
until  you  reach  the  end,  which  to  me  is  inexplicable. 

— G.  S.  Street,  The  Yellow  Book,  5:179. 

1879  [50-    The  Egoist:  A  Comedy  in  Narrative. 

Here  is  a  book  to  send  the  blood  into  men's  faces.  .  .  It  is 
yourself  that  is  hunted  down;  these  are  your  own  faults  that  are 
dragged  into  the  day  and  numbered,  with  lingering  relish,  with  cruel 
cunning  and  precision. 

— Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  Books  Which  Have  Influenced  Me,  13. 
A  psychological  study  so  minute,  witty,  and  yet  kindly,  is  not  to  be 
got  in  the  pages  of  any  other  novelist.     Never  before  in  comedy  was 
there  such  a  dissection  of  a  heart. 

—J.  M.  Barrie,  Cont.  Rev.,  Oct..  1888(54:581). 

Meredith's  worst  novel:  an  inflated,  obese,  elephantine  comedy, 
which  is  not  comic.  .  .  Meredith's  treatment  of  |_the]  theme  is  not 
only  unutterably  fatiguing,  but  also  becomes  revolting. 

— G.  P.  Lathrop,  Ail.  Mo.,  Feb.,  1888  (61:189). 

There  is  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  like  it  or  leave  it,  sit  up  with  it 
through  the  small  hours,  or  doze  over  it  at  noonday.  There  is  no  mid- 
dle course.  If  it  is  not  predestined  for  one,  one  can  no  more  live 
through  a  chapter  than  write  it;  if  it  is— well,  we  break  our  hearts  in 
trying  to  write  about  it. 
— Richard  L,e  Gallienne,  George  Meredith,  Some  Characteristics,  13. 

In  the  Egoist  Mr.  Meredith  is  even  more  artificial  and  affected 
than  is  his  wont;  he  bristles  with  allusions,  he  teems  with  hints  and 
side-hits  and  false  alarms,  he  glitters  with  phrases,  he  riots  in  intellec- 
tual points  and  philosophical  fancies.  .  .  Sir  Willoughby  Patterne  is 
a  "document  on  humanity"  of  the  highest  value;  and  to  him  that 
would  know  of  egoism  and  the  egoist  the  study  of  Sir  Willoughby  is 
indispensable.     There  is  something  in  him  of  us  all. 

— W.  E.  Henley,  Views  and  Reviews,  53. 

That  extraordinary  work  of  subtle  analysis  without  an  incident  to 
speak  of  from  beginning  to  end.  .  .  A  profound  moral;  .  .  a  pro- 
found philosophy  may  be  the  ground-work  and  crown  of  that  singularly 
powerful  piece  of  workmanship;  .  .  but  it  is  in  the  admirable  con- 
duct of  the  story,   the  development  of  the  characters,  the  gradual 


19 

[Thb  Egoist] 

ensnaring  of  the  Egoist  in  his  own  conceits,  until  he  is  left  stripped 
at  last  of  all  pretensions,  .  .  that  the  capital  merit  of  that  master- 
piece of  psychology  lies.  — Temple  Bar,  April,  1893  (97:592,  603). 

1879  [51].     The  Tale  of   Chigoe  :   an   Episode   in  the 

History  of  Beau  Beamish.       (Published    in     The 

New  Quarterly  Magazine  for  July  ;  reprinted  in  The 

Tale  of  Chloe,  and  Other  Stories,  1895.) 

Tragically  cynical.     .     .      Perhaps  a  little  too   heartrending   for  its 

length.     .      .      Still     .     .    such   as  only  one    living    English    novelist 

except  Mr.  Meredith  could  have  written. 

— Geo.  Saintsbury,  Academy,  Mch.  23,  1895(47:253). 

The  most  perfect  in  form  of  Mr.  Meredith's  works  of  fiction,  except 
Richard  Feverel.  .  .  [The]  delicacy  of  the  setting  assists  the  exquis- 
ite pathos  of  the  central  figure,  surely  one  of  the  noblest  in  tragic 
story.  — G.  S.  Street,  The  Yellow  Book,  5:182. 

18S0    [52].     The    Tragic    Comedians.    A    Study    in   a 
Well-Known  Story. 

A  study  in  oblique  narration;  he  has  turned  the  first  persou  of  his 
original  ["Meiue  Beziehungeu  zu  Ferdinand  Lassalle,"  by  Helene  von 
Racowitza]  into  the  third  and  added  his  own  comments.  .  .  Readers 
who  are  ignorant  of  the  original  will  do  well  to  read  Mr.  Meredith's 
adaptation,  which  is  as  stimulating  in  style,  and  at  least  as  lucid  in  ar- 
rangement, as  anything  else  he  has  given  to  the  world. 

— Athencsum,  Jan.  8,  1881,  49. 

In  some  ways,  a  literary  mistake.  .  .  The  lady  herself  has  told 
her  own  story.  .  .  Mr.  Meredith's  analysis  hardly  tells  us  anything 
that  was  not  known  before,  and  it  sadly  lacks  the  flesh  and  blood 
which  might  animate  the   logical  skeleton. 

— W.  L.  Courtney,  Fori.  Rev.,  June,  1S86  (45:775). 

l883  [55].      Poems   and  Lyrics  of  the  Joy  of  Earth. 

His  lyrics  Of  the  Joy  of  Earth  .  .  have  a  purpose  that  reveals  it- 
self to  one  willing  to  ponder  on  their  often  involved,  always  thought- 
hoarding  lines.  He  is,  with  a  difference,  the  Emerson  of  English 
poets.  — E.  C.  Stedman,  Victorian  Poets,  447. 

In  every  way  these  poems  are  worthy  of  the  author  of  the  PIgoist 
and  the  Tragic  Comedians — that  is  to  say,  they  give  the  same  impress- 
ion of  cold  brilliancy,  of  epigram  and  antithesis,  and  absence  of  native 
simplicity  and  warmth.  .  .  On  the  other  hand,  nothing  but  praise 
should  be  accorded  to  the  beautiful  pastoral  Love  in  the  Valley,  with 
it-  racy,  exhilarating  metre. 

— W.  L.  Courtney,  Fort.  Rev.,  Nov.,  1883(40:718). 


21 

f885'[57]-     Diana  of  The  Crossways.    A  Novel. 

With  the  one  exception  of  Richard  Feverel,  Diana  of  the  Cross- 
ways  contains  Mr.  Meredith's  most  clever  and  successful  work. 

— W.  L.  Courtney,  Fort.  Rev.,  June,  1S86  (45:776). 

His  way  of  telling  the  story  is,  in  the  main,  as  excellent  as  he 
knows  how  to  fashion  it, — direct,  dramatic,  vivacious.  .  .  Diana  of 
the  Crossways  bubbles,  sparkles,  effervesces  with  the  customary 
Meredithian  scintillating  foam;  and  it  is  more  direct  and  conver- 
sational than  most  of  his  novels. 

— G.  P.  Lathrop,  All.  Mo.,  Feb.,    1S88  (61:190). 

To  construct  a  character  that  would  fit  the  known  facts;  to  con- 
struct a  woman  dazzling  by  the  brilliancy  of  her  personality,  and 
liable  by  the  very  force  of  the  qualities  which  raised  her  above  the 
crowd  to  commit  indiscretions  unpardonable  by  the  world,  was  a  con- 
genial exercise  to  his  inventive  faculty,  and  the  result  is  a  singularly 
vivid  conception  worked  out  with  great  literary  power.  .  .  Amongst 
all  his  literary  and  intellectual  feats,  Mr.  Meredith  has  perhaps  never 
accomplished  one  more  striking  than  in  making  us  feel  that  his  Diana 
justified   her  reputation. 

—[Cosmo  Monkhouse],  Sat.   Rev.,  Mch.  21,  1885  (59:389). 

!887  [59].     Ballads  and  Poems  of  Tragic   Life. 

Mr.  Meredith's  verse  has  all  the  merits  and  defects  of  his  prose  . 
At  his  hardest  and  knottiest,  as  at  his  loftiest  and  most  luminous,  he 
is  unmistakably  a  man  of  genius. 

— [W.  E.  Henley],  Sat.  Rev.,  June  n,  1887  (63:851). 

He  will  rhyme  you  off  a  ballad,  and  to  break  the  secret  of  that 
ballad  you  have  to  take  to  yourself  a  dark  lantern  and  a  case  of 
jemmies.  I  like  him  best  in  The  Nuptials  of  Attila.  .  .  Here  he 
is  successfully  himself,  and  what  more  is  there  to  say? 

— W.  E.  Henley,  Views  and  Reviews,  54. 

1888  [60].     A  Reading  of  Earth. 

Mr.  Meredith  had  a  happy  thought  when  he  chose  as  a  title  for  one 
of  his  volumes,  "A  Reading  of  Earth,"  for  earth  has  had  few  more 
fervidly  studious  readers  than  he.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  that  outside 
a  few  memorable  passages  of  Browning,  we  have  little  if  any  verse  in 
which  the  life  of  the  poet  becomes  so  utterly  identified  with  the  life  of 
the  world. 
—James  Ashcroft  Noble,  Miles'  Poets  and  Poetry  of  the  Century,  5:367. 


23 

1891c [63].    One  of  Our  Conquerors. 

If  it  is  not  Sturm  und  Drang,  it  is  spasm  and  gasp.  Here  Mr. 
Meredith  has  surpassed  himself  in  his  peculiar  manner,  and  no  more 
need  be  said.  —  Ed.  Rev.,  Jan.,  1895  (181:54). 

Nesta  .  .  is  an  exquisite  creation,  fit  to  rank  beside  Lucy  Feverel 
and  Clara  Middleton.  .  .  There  is  only  one  man  alive  in  England 
who  could  have  written  that  passage  [in  which  Dartrey  Fenellan 
reveals  his  love  to  Nesta],  and  he  is  Mr.  Meredith.  Its  subtlety  and 
strength  are  alike  astounding,  and  it  reveals  him  at  his  very  best.  .  . 
To  say  that  the  book  is  by  Mr.  Meredith  is  to  say  that  it  is  full  to  the 
brim  of  brilliant  things.  —AthencEum,  May  2,  1891,  561. 

The  book  grows  upon  the  reader,  the  apparent  confusion  disap- 
pears, the  intricacies  of  design  become  intelligible,  and  the  whole 
greatness  of  design  is  evident.  .  .  Mr.  Meredith  has  drawn  more 
portraits  and  characters  of  true  women  than  any  other  English- 
man, but  Shakspere  and  Browning;  Nesta  is.it  may  be  thought,  the 
truest  of  them  all.     — Lionel  Johnson,  Academy,  June  13,  1891  (39:555). 

1892  [64].  Modern  Love  :  A  Reprint,  to  Which  is 
Added  The  Sage  Enamoured  and  the  Honest 
Lady. 

[See  under  1862.] 

I  cannot  but  believe  that  The  Sage  Enamoured  and  the  Honest 
Lady  will  not  stand  the  test  of  time  so  well  as  the  equally  subtle  and 
infinitely   more  vivid,  dramatic  and  moving  verse  of  Modern  Love. 

— Wm   Watson,  Excursions  in  Criticism,  137 

1892  [64].  The  Empty  Purse,  with  Odes  to  the 
Comic  Spirit,  to  Youth,  on  Memory,  and 
Verses. 

1892  [64].    Jump  to  Glory  Jane. 

A  good  piece  of  work,  and  a  not  incomprehensible  one.  .  .  If  it 
be  a  satire  at  all,  which  must  be  left  to  the  perception  of  the  reader, 
the  poem  is  also,  as  Meredith  calls  it,  "one  of  the  pictures  of  our 
England."  .  .  One  object  was  to  give  a  sly  reductio  ad  absurdum  to 
the  doctrine  which  Kingsley  set  such  store  by  :  the  connection  between 
physical  health  and  religious  feeling. 

— Harry  Quilter,  Introduction  to  his  edition,  23. 

1894  [66]     Lord  Ormont  and  his  Aminta. 

Not  one  of  Mr.  Meredith's  books  is  more  characteristic  in  tone,  in- 
tention, spirit,  theme;  none  less  so  in  the  execution.     For  strength   of 


25 

[Lord  Ormont  and  his  Aminta.] 

thought,  for  imaginative  vision,  for  intensity  of  purpose  and  appeal,  it 
has  all  the  writer's  most  distinctive  excellences;  but  there  is  a  reticence 
or  restraint  of  manner  which  will  make  the  story  a  favourite  with  some 
readers,  something  of  a  surprise  and  disappointment    to  others. 
—Lionel  Johnson,  Academy,  July  7,  1S94  (46:3). 

We  have  found  as  little  meaning,  and  certainly  less  of  moral,  in 
Mr.  Meredith's  last  novel.  The  style  is  exceptionally  involved,  and  the 
purpose  is  phenomenally  obscure.  As  in  "One  of  Our  Conquerors," 
the  main  interest  of  the  plot  turns  upon  the  false  position  of  an  unac- 
knowledged wife.  But  in  the  former  novel  vice  was  visited  by  retribu- 
tion; in  "Lord  Ormont  and  his  Aminta  "  the  sinners  not  only  escape 
with  impunity,  but  have  coals  of  fire  heaped  upon  their  heads. 

—Ed.  Rev.,  Jan.,  1895  (181:56). 

189.5  [67].    The;  Tale  of  Chloe,  and   Other  Stories. 

Mr.  Meredith's  various  veins  (with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  his 
fantastic-poetical  one,  in  which  some  like  him  best)  appear  here  very 
well  in  miniature.— George  Saintsbury,  Acad.,  Mch.  23,  1895  (47:253). 

The  Tale  of  Chloe,  and  Other  Stories  gives  you  Mr.  Meredith  in 
little.  In  The  House  on  the  Beach  you  have  him,  as  it  were,  in  his 
bones.  In  The  Case  of  General  Ople  and  Lady  Camper  you  have  him 
alive  and  imperfect.  In  The  Tale  of  Chloe  you  have  him  consum- 
mate. — G.  S.  Street,  The  Yellow  Book,  5:175. 

l895  [67]-     The  Amazing  Marriage. 

There  is  only  one  man  living  who  could  criticise  it  adequately, 
and  he,  as  it  happens,  wrote  it.  .  .  A  fresh  and  most  welcome  con- 
tribution to  that  great  Handbook  of  Humanity  which  is  Mr.  Meredith's 
supremely  valuable  gift  to  the  literature  of  the  world. 

— W.  E.  Garrett  Fisher,  Acad.,  Jan.  19,  1896  (49:27). 

"The  Amazing  Marriage"  is  not  as  hard  reading  as  some  of  its 
predecessors  have  been,  but  is  harder  than  most  of  us  like  to  under- 
take for  pleasure.  .  .  Considered  simply  as  a  story,  the  book  has 
but  a  slender  equipment. 

—William  Morton  Payne,  The  Dial,  Feb.  1,  1896  (20:77). 

The  book  is  good  all  the  way  through  ,  and  .  .  each  portion  will 
somehow  reward  you.  .  .  In  no  other  story  has  Mr.  Meredith  let 
loose  more  of  his  lyrical  faculty.  .  .  And  his  narrative  powers  are 
here  and  there  at  their  liveliest.  .  .  It  reveals  Mr.  Meredith's  sym- 
pathies more   openly   than  almost    anything   else  in    his  prose. 

—  The  Bookman,  2:522-3. 


27 


1897  [69]-     An  Essay  on  Comedy.     (The  lecture  On  the 
,  Idea  of  Comedy,  and  of  the  Uses  of  the  Comic  Spirit, 
delivered  in  1877.) 

Written  twenty  years  ago,  and  delivered  as  a  lecture  before  the 
London  Institution.  .  .  An  interesting  distinction  is  made  between 
comedy  and  the  other  powers  that  produce  laughter:  differing  from 
satire  in  not  driving  sharply  into  the  quivering  sensibilities,  from  irony 
in  not  stinging  under  a  half-caress,  from  humor  in  having  a  narrower 
scope.  — The  Dial,  April  16,  1897(22:255). 

A  little  work  of  extreme  suggestiveness,  and  no  one  at  all  serious- 
ly interested  in  the  subject  can  afford  not  to  read  it.  Mr.  Meredith  has 
never  written  more  flexibly  than  in  this  essay.  .  .  We  do  not  want 
Mr.  Meredith  to  divert  any  energy  from  novel-writing,  and  yet  we 
wish  he  could  find  it  in  his  power  to  dip  more  often  into  criticism.  He 
does  it  superbly.  —Academy,  Apr.  3,  1897  (51:371)- 

1897  [69].    Selected  Poems. 

There  is  throughout  all  these  poems  a  lack  of  that  great  simplicity 
which  we  demand  in  the  highest  verse.  Passages  there  are  of  quite 
extraordinary  beauty,  of  ripe  observation  and  flowing  vigour;  but  we 
are  from  time  to  time  arrested  by  a  metaphor  or  a  thought  which  is 
baffling  in  the  extreme.  .  .  But  that  it  is  the  verse  of  a  true,  and,  at 
times,  a  splendid  poet,  no  one  with  eyes  or  ears  can  for  a  moment 
doubt.  —Academy,  Oct.  2,  1897  (52:253). 


29 

SELECTED    REFERENCES. 

0 

General. 

Le  Gallienne,  Richard.    George  Meredith,  Some  Characteristics. 

London:  Elkiu  Mathews.     1890. 
Lynch,  Hannah.    George  Meredith:  A  Study.    London:  Methuen  & 

Co.   1891. 

Oilman,   M.    R.   F.     Introduction    to   The    Pilgrim's    Scrip.     Boston: 

Roberts  Bros.     1888. 
Henley,  W.  E.    Views  and  Reviews,  43-55. 
Shaw,    Flora   L.     George   Meredith,     New    Princeton    Rev.,    March, 

1887  (3:220-229). 
Symons,  Arthur.    Robert  Browning  and  George  Meredith.    A  Note 

on  their  Similarity.      Browning  Society  Papers,  Part  I,  Vol.  II,  80. 

Poems. 

Courtney,  W.  L.    Poets  of  To-day.  Fort.  Rev.,  Nov.,  1883  (40:717-8). 

Dowden,  Edw.  Mr.  Meredith  in  his  Poems,  New  Studies  in  Litera- 
ture, 33-61 

Noble,  J.  A.  George  Meredith,  Miles'  Poets  and  Poetry  of  the  Cen- 
tury, 5:355-368. 

Stedman,  E.  C     Victorian  Poets,  271,  447. 

Reveil,  Wm.  F.  George  Meredith's  Nature  Poetry.  IVestm.  Rev., 
Nov.,  1894  (142:506-523). 

Watson,  Wm.  Mr.  Meredith's  Poetry,  Excursions  in  Criticism,  133-140. 

[Symons,  Arthur],  George  Meredith's  Poetry.  IVestm.  Rev.,  Sept., 
1887  (128:693-7). 

An  Inarticulate  Poet,  Spectator,  Oct.  15,  r8S7  (60:1384-5). 

Novels. 

Barrie,  J.  M.     Mr.  George   Meredith's  Novels.     Cont.  Rev.,  Oct.,  1888 

(54:575-586). 
Courtney,  W.  L-     George   Meredith's   Novels.     Fori.   Rev.,  June,    18S6 

(45:77i-9)- 

Lathrop,  G.  P.     George  Meredith.     All.  Mo.,  Feb.,  1S88  (61:178-193). 

Parsons,  F.  Mary  W.  The  Novels  of  George  Meredith.  Temple  Bar, 
June,  1896(108:262-9). 

Quilter,  Harry.  A  Note  on  the  Writings  of  George  Meredith.  In- 
troduction to  his  edition  of  Jump  to  Glory  Jane,  7-21.) 


3i 

Symons,  Arthur.    Characteristics  of  George  Meredith.      Acad.,  Jan. 

24,  1891  (39:81).     (A  review  of  Le  Gallienne's  book.) 
[McCarthy,   Justin].     Novels   with    a   Purpose.       IVestm.   Rev.,  July 

1864(26:29-40.) 
[Sergeant,  Adeline].    George  Meredith's  Views  of  Women.     Temple 

Bar,  June,  1889  (86:207-213). 
George  Meredith's  Novels,  Critic,  June  1,  1889  (N.  S.  11:267). 
Mr.  Meredith's  Novels.    Ed.  Rev.,  Jan  ,  1895  (181:33-58.) 
George  Meredith.     Temple  Bar,  April,  1893  (97:589-604). 


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